I’m sure most Ministry Today readers are very aware that year-end giving campaigns are perhaps the most important fund-raising time for non-profit organizations. With 41 percent of all donations occurring in the last few weeks of December, the year-end campaign is a make or break proposition for many churches and most non-profits.
While you are crafting your year-end campaign I wanted to make sure you didn’t neglect the fastest growing way to connect with new givers—your online presence.
First, lets examine the facts. According to Charity Navigator’s survey, 93 percent of those surveyed said they gave during the 2010 year-end giving season. Of those who donated in 2010, 91 percent said they planned to give during the same period in 2011.
According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, one-third of all online donations were made in the month of December, and 22 percent of all online donations were made in the last two days of the year.
Finally, online donations are still the fastest growing segment of giving, up 15.8 percent in 2011 from 2010, with 73 percent of all organizations that offer online giving seeing an increase from 2010. For Ministry Today readers, what may be more important, 37 percent of all online revenue was generated from first-time givers.
While engagement will always be the most important factor in not only retaining donors, but finding new ones, utilizing all of the great tools available now to you not only make it easier for new donors to find you, but also make it easier for them to give.
While you are crafting your ministry’s year end stories of all the great things you do in your communities, take a moment to ensure the donation page on your website is easy find and easy to navigate. Examine your Facebook and Twitter presence to ensure that you are actively engaging with your community of like-minded people, and take a look at free mobile tools such as allAware, which might help you improve communication and member engagement while providing yet a third avenue for mobile giving.
The year-end giving campaign of 2012 is just around the corner. A few tech savvy tweaks will help to make sure your stories have the biggest impact to the widest audience possible.
Jason Milgram is the founder of http://linxter.com and creator of allAware.com, a free mobile, private social app for nonprofit organizations that improves communication and member involvement and mobile donations. Linxter and Milgram are focused on solving communication and financial transaction challenges for nonprofits and ministries.
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